Feb. 22—WATERBURY — City officials are taking initial steps toward acquiring the Las Delicias Bakery and Restaurant property on East Main Street through a negotiated sale or eminent domain for the planned replacement of Fire Station 5 next door.
The City Planning Commission voted unanimously earlier this month to recommend the Board of Aldermen approve the acquisition of the small parcel at the request of the administration of Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr.
The Board of Aldermen is slated to schedule a hearing on the proposed acquisition of 1980 East Main St. at its meeting Monday. After the hearing, aldermen would then vote on whether to proceed.
City officials are looking to obtain the Las Delicias property adjacent to Fire Station 5 to build a new, larger and state-of-art firehouse on the two properties.
Pernerewski said his administration is planning to buy the property through a negotiated sale if one can be reached, or through an eminent domain action if necessary.
“If we can come to terms with the property owner, we’ll go before the Board of Aldermen for acquisition,” he said. “If not, then we have to go through the eminent domain process.”
Finance Director Michael LeBlanc advised the City Planning Commission that attempts to determine the owner’s interest in selling the property were unsuccessful.
City land records list VLE 7 LLC as the property owner, and a state business filing names Victor A. Enriquez-Perez and Luz Morocho as its principals. Efforts were made Friday to reach the owners for comment, but received no immediate response.
The property at 1980 East Main is 0.21 acres with a three-story building constructed in 1926 that consists of commercial and retail space on the first floor where the bakery is housed and apartments on the upper two floors. The city last valued the property at $404,700.
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Eminent domain is the power of the government to take private property for public use. If Waterbury exercises this authority, the city will move to condemn the Las Delicias property and offer compensation based on its fair market value. A property owner can challenge the legality of the seizure and the fair market value used for compensation through the courts.
Pernerewski said he believes the city’s stated purpose of acquiring property for a new firehouse to serve East End residents would survive court scrutiny. He said that would just leave the question of the selling price. He acknowledged that taking the property through eminent domain would require Las Delicias owners to relocate the business elsewhere.
Fire Station 5 was built in 1927, and it is not only antiquated and worn down, but also considered functionally obsolete, according to city officials. It is considered too small to adequately serve the fire safety needs of East End neighborhoods.
The firehouse can only accommodate a single fire engine, and the single exit and entrance is at the congested intersection on East Main Street and Southmayd Road. City officials also said the existing station is too confined to meet the personnel needs of the firefighters assigned there.
The acquisition of the Las Delicias property would allow for the construction of a larger firehouse that could accommodate two modern fire engines, and it would also provide a second means of ingress and egress on Brookdale Lane, which will allow fire trucks to pull out of the entrance fronting East Main Steet and loop back on Brooksdale Lane to return through the rear entrance.
There was $8 million authorized in the city’s latest capital plan for the construction of the new Fire Station 5. But Pernerewski said the final price of the project will depend on construction costs when the contract is sent out to public bid.
The mayor said he also anticipates that work on a new Station 5 would probably start sometime in 2026 at the earliest. He said the city is going to next renovate Fire Station 1 on North Main Street as part of an ongoing program to update firehouses. In 2021, the Board of Aldermen approved an initial $1.3 million bond authorization.
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